Arthur Luxenberg (Returns)

We had deep conversations about Passover programs and this will be airing during Passover . I hope everybody's having an amazing Passover program and the entertainment where you are is good . I will be in Mexico for two shows those that will see me . I cannot wait . I love Passover shows Arthur and I spoke about . Of course we always have the stuttering in common .

Of course we always have the stuttering in common . We spoke about why people who went to law school and don't practice law always introduce themselves as lawyer but not practicing .

We had an emotional conversation , absolutely emotional , heartwarming , really a connection , a bond over pretzels , just discussing how important pretzels are and how delicious they are and all kinds of textures . Just discussing how important pretzels are and how delicious they are and all kinds of textures . And we really it was .

If you catch anything of this episode , make sure it's the pretzel conversation . Periel was on the sideline giving us talking points . We had a great time . Thank you very much for listening and don't forget I'm on tour . There are shows everywhere , america and Europe . We are in Warsaw , manchester , we are in Frankfurt , munich , we are in Geneva and in Antwerp .

Wow , it's an amazing tour . It's going to be two weeks of those shows , unbelievable .

And then we have the Summer Laugh the Laugh-Away Camp Instead of Sleepaway Camp , laugh-away Camp instead of Sleep-Away Camp , laugh-away Camp , with shows in Omaha , nebraska , in Indianapolis , in Columbus , ohio , hampton Bays , which is in the Hamptons , right between both West and regular Hampton . Everything's available on modilivecom . Enjoy the episode .

Welcome to , and here's

Modi . Welcome to and here's Modi . We are here today . It's me and my guest and it's Arthur Luxemburg . Welcome back . I can't tell you how many people loved the episodes you were on and everywhere we go , people know you say when is Arthur coming back ?

One guy I'm horrible with names , you know that , but in the meet and greet set I went to law school with him and I heard his voice . I felt like I was in law school again . I felt like I was 23 years old in law school and just so . I'm so happy .

So I recently began to learn how to use chat GPT , so I put in this is what I put in for an introduction and questions with you . This is what I wrote today . This is my first time really using ChatGPT . Okay , I wrote . I'm the number one Jewish comedian in the world . I have a podcast called , and here's Modi .

Today , our guest is a friend that I have met later in life , which I always think is a special thing to meet friends later in life . His name is Arthur Luxemburg . He is a partner at Weitz and Luxemburg Law Firm , which also is a sponsor of our podcast .

Arthur and I share a miraculous journey because we are both stutterers and work in a field that would never think stutterers would work in . I'm a comedian and he's a court attorney and a law attorney . I don't know how to say what you do exactly . This episode will be airing during Passover .

Arthur will be at a Passover program in Florida and I'll be doing two shows in Mexico . The Passover programs are special , unique , niche events that happen in the Jewish world . Please give me five questions to ask him . I don't like any of the questions , by the way , but that was it . That's a good introduction . No , no , periel just gave me a eh .

It gives them a pause from life . Listening to our shtos , our nourish kite , makes them happy , which .

Our entire family is there . We're over 40 people now and it's really an incredible time .

and it's just Jews and food and it's so unhinged and people who don't understand how crazy Passover programs are . You can't explain it to them . We get to your table . Randy shows up in pink pajamas and fluffy shoes All like Chanel .

Everything is like thousands of dollars and her own water bottle and her own Snapple Kosher for Passover Snapple Things that they don't have in the program .

It was a little bit different than the first time we met at a Passover program which was at the hotel upstate , the Rye Town Hilton . So during Passover , people who are well-to-do go to nice hotels and destinations , all kinds of places in Mexico and all of that . And then there's people who go to the Rye Hotel in upstate and that's because they really it's .

Either it's less expensive but more it's like either they have a parent that's too old to travel or their daughter-in-law is like in her nine and a half month .

And one of the fun things was is you'd see people either in the dining room or at the Minion and so why are you here ? So why are you here ? And someone would say , oh , my mother couldn't travel , or my daughter was pregnant Exactly what you said or you had to be .

You know , during the intermediate days , during Cholamoi , yeah , somewhere you had to be at work . There was always a reason you were there . It couldn't just be because it was a great program , Right ?

Have you noticed that ?

You know there's a family business , you know they can't get a good enough job , and that's something else that we should really be talking about . But that's a very common thing that people go to law school .

Husband runs the practice , because I guess he was a lawyer quit . Now he runs this practice . And within the first two interactions we had , he was telling me I'm a lawyer too . I was a lawyer , but now I run this practice . It was funny . I called him up . I said I need to make an appointment for this . I go . My name is Mody Rosenfeld , he goes .

We just saw you at the Beacon . My parents are seeing you in Florida , so that was right away . It was already family . Okay , it's already family . And I get there and we start talking right away . I was a law degree , he goes . I was the attorney for Enron . Luckily I'm old enough to know what the hell he's talking about . But that was like .

But that's a thing . Lawyers always talk about being lawyers , like you know . They don't just like it's . It's a thing . I don't know it's a thing . I don't know it's a thing , but what's the ?

When you go to law school , a lot of people don't know what they want to go into . They know they want some kind of professional degree , or their parents want them to have some kind of advanced degree , or their grandparents want them to , which was my case . They wanted me to be a doctor , but that didn't work out .

So you go to law school because you don't know what you want to do . You waste a bunch of money and you waste time and then you decide what kind of job can I get ?

And if you don't get a good enough job or it's not something that really appealed to you , because you don't learn in law school how to be a lawyer , you learn how to approach things , but you don't learn the practical kind of things that you actually do once you become a lawyer and once you're working in a law firm , whereas in medical school and in those

kind of other things . You actually learn how to be a doctor and do those kind of things in your residency , in your internship , whereas in law you don't .

what wasn't lost on me was being with one of my best friends who we're going to get a bite to eat after , right , he must have done three or four shows that week , flying all over the country and yet he's taken 10 minutes to practice new material . And yet he's taken 10 minutes to practice new material .

And you never that's never something that you ever lose working hard , putting in that kind of energy .

So it was really fortuitous that we then pass the building that I first learned that I first became a lawyer in in the Woolworth building and I spent so much time and made so little money but put in such an enormous effort when it first began my career and it honestly had a lot of good memories and you know that's really what launched that conversation about .

You know people think like you're just successful . You know that Modi just is a talented guy that one day just got on a stage and just became enormously successful . It doesn't happen that way . It doesn't happen that way for anybody .

An enormous amount of training , of time , of effort , of failures , many failures go into the magic of what ultimately becomes success . If you measure success in that way and my kids always needle me , you know , dad , success is not financial success . It could be success in so many different ways , and they're right . Success could take on many different forms .

If you're successful in a community and you're doing charity work , or you're successful with a family , or you're successful in anything that brings you tremendous joy , that measures success , not just financial success . So passing the Woolworth building that night was really , you know , just a moment for me .

The building you have now is insane , so that building , modi , we continued to work downtown .

We were working for another firm when we were in the Woolworth Building , but when we moved , we moved to a little tiny office in the Continental Building , 2,000 square feet . Oh my God Right , we now have 100 . But we were in 2,000 square feet . Oh my God Right , we now have 100 . But we were in 2,000 square feet , oh my God .

We were in basically what kind of law were you doing ? We were doing the same thing Personal injury type of law , which is where the asbestos litigation really began and where we began doing the kind of mass torts that we did . But we only had 2,000 square feet .

It was a tiny little space and we grew from there and we left that building shortly thereafter and we went to a different building downtown always downtown in the Wall Street area , Right Until the rents really went up very , very high and we decided many years later to buy a building .

So it was really only 20 years , 20 years , Only 20 , only 20 years , only 20 years .

And they brought me this gold microphone Remember the gold microphone , of course and I start the show and I go Right . I go oh , mezzofilioma , arthur , I think we have a case . Right , that's how I started the show , right that's how I started the show .

I've been to my different ones different ones , of course . There's years I remember I flew to four different ones . I would do a show in Florida , go to Arizona , from Arizona to Aspen , and one year it was Florida , arizona , aspen and then Vieques .

Remember there was a program in Vieques it's like an island that's off of Puerto Rico oh , I don't know , it was an island off of Puerto Rico or somewhere like that . You had to get on a prop plane to get on there , right , and they had to get all the Jews out there with their luggage .

Each one was on his own plane and they got there and the guy that ran the program didn't do a good job and there was no food . They were abandoned on the island and I showed up like on day seven , you know , showed up like on day seven , you know .

Then , before they go back into the other , and there was a lot of people showed up there , a lot the big rabbis we had there , but it was supposed to be a big deal , but it ended up a big bomb on this island , um , and you couldn't get food . It's not like you're in puerto rico , it's , it's , it's a mess .

And then the microphone they had for me it was a six , six foot to a wall . That's why I was performing . But it was a great show and they loved it because they were dying over there . It was a big , big Anybody that was on the Vieques Passover program . We should have a support group meeting . People were traumatized .

People were traumatized by this Passover program . They thought , oh , this is it , this is the next level of Passover program . It's Vieques , this is the next level of Passover programs V'ekes , the Tuchus , it's the middle of nowhere . We know it was a disaster , a disaster . But I've been to every program big , small , large , far away in travel Mexico , aruba .

Every year I would do two or three programs .

It's so free , you understand , to perform at these programs . It's like being in the Catskills again .

Right , don't you judge every program by how long you have to wait online for your omelet and what kind of tea room they have ?

You have a few of the kids that became extra religious , like more religious than family , and they're walking around with a white shirt and a Gamora in their hands with the Talmud . They're walking around . They're looking to see that they're carrying a Talmud .

Everybody else is in bathing suits , butt naked , running around to the pool , but he's walking around with a Talmud because he was a year in Israel and became really religious and now he's walking around with a Talmud for this year . By the next year he's not maybe . But you're right , every family has a couple . Yeah , that became .

Is it your mom or was it your mom ? No , it wasn't your mom , it was somebody else's mom at the table , came over to me and goes I'm a big fan of yours . Maybe my sister-in-law's mother . She came over . Very lovely lady , lovely lovely lady . She lives in New Jersey , she's great , she's great .

And she said to me I'm a big fan of your work and this and that , and it's been very nice to meet you and I'm glad to see you're here with Arthur and Randy , and I said this is my husband . She goes . Oh oh , I didn't know you were such a metropolitan person , that's what she said Is that what she said ? Yeah . She said , yeah , metropolitan .

I remember I was dying from that . That's a shout out to Bubz Bubz , yeah . And you guys didn't let her come to the show because of COVID . Maybe she didn't want to go to the show , she wanted . Her family didn't let her go because they were scared . Everybody was still in the room . It was a tight room . It was a feeder . It was a feeder .

Yeah , it was a feeder .

it's heavy , whoa .

You know , your stuttering was different and I think it depends on you know the quality of how you stutter , meaning I blocked , I listened to tapes of myself going back 40 years not 40 , 50 years when I was 10 years old and I didn't remember how difficult it was , but I couldn't speak and I don't think you were ever in .

How was your stuttering when you were growing up ?

There's and it probably comes from the point of view of parents . You know they want to shelter their kids . They don't want their kids to be exposed to any ridicule or any people who don't understand it , or can't you get your words out or people being made fun of or bullying , so they insulate them in a way that they're never exposed .

Or in their younger years and when they get a little bit older , even during high school , they go to stuttering camps like we spoke about . There's a very good camp that kids go to , or there's stuttering support groups . Whereas my view was get as much help as you can . There's help out there and it's very important .

You're not always going to be able to go to a camp for stutterers . You're not always going to be able to go to a camp for stutterers .

You're not always going to be able to be in an environment where all your friends are only going to be stutterers , right , and if that's the only place that you're exposed to through high school and you go to college , you're going to be in a very , very difficult environment that you're emotionally not going to be able to handle .

So I advocate , advocate and I might take criticism for this , and we'll see the comments from your people that are watching this , but I'm of the opinion that do whatever you can to get the therapy that you can to get to a point where you're more fluent . I don't want to say where you get better or you get well . We never .

As I'm sitting here , as you're sitting here , I could have blocked and stuttered on 50 different words . Yeah , but I know what I'm going to block on , I know what I'm going to stutter on , and it's through my training that I got around it .

Arthur came to see me at the Beacon and went into a coma . Oh God , arthur went into a coma . What the hell did you have that night ? Vertigo , I had vertigo , you had vertigo . So , randy , didn't come backstage and there's nobody backstage from his party , and that's usually where he is . So I go Randy , everything . Okay , he goes .

Arthur's in a coma , have fun tonight , literally . And Arthur was like this he was having vertigo and you didn't catch any of the show .

I know I sat in the show completely , you know , completely out of it and , by the way , you know you think , like someone says , oh he passed out , like no , you don't understand . I , like someone says , oh , he passed out , like no , you don't understand , I was passed out . I know the people I was with a very dear friend literally had to carry me out .

Oh my God .

So the show really like tightened and got better and I moved things around and we had the pretzels in the back of the wow , by the way , you ever want to get me , you ever want to get me a hot pretzel .

So I see these pretzels dingling around . I was mesmerized for me when I said a pretzel going like that , that dingling , that's like that's like when they do that , that's that hypnosis . Yeah , I said to leo , we're walking in . I go , leo , leo , make sure they get the pretzels back , make sure we get the pretzels back on stage .

But they bring us their pretzels and I said , bring one for my . He was coming to the show too and my father didn't even get through the lobby . He bought it himself he wasn't going to walk by those pretzels . He comes back eating one . I had one waiting for him . Pretzel with Diet Coke is next level of my favorite food A pretzel and Diet .

Okay , like after a game , or you're walking around , it's 11 o'clock at night . You get a hot pretzel . There's nothing greater If it's hot are those carts ?

that . It's a bagel . You like it with salt ? Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , a little bit lightly salted .

You can just pick it up off it's not like a piece of cake or something you have to . No , you rip off a section of it .

I'm learning something here . You know that . You know if it's mushy , oh , Modi yeah , the little .

And there's your title for the episode Pretzel hypnosis , it , pretzel hypnosis . It's great , it's what it was . No , this is what people listen to this podcast for Exactly what we just talked about .

Yeah , she doesn't make me any fresh pretzels . No , and she also never corrected the microwave routine .

You just dink right in and you eat it . It's so good . Shout out to her . Shout out to her Also . Shout out to your other daughter .

So she'll be , she'll , yeah , it's going to be the next time you and I sitting here again , you'll see there'll be a different , by the way , and Randy's the brunt of all of it .

We're never going to be . It'll be something that we always have .

But anyway , I said that I met a guy , I met a general manager at a great restaurant in Aruba where we had dinner , and the general manager was what appeared to me to be a very chronic stutterer , where he wasn't controlled , he wasn't fluent at all and he was a stutterer . And after dinner I spoke to him and I asked him a few questions .

I told him that I was also a stutterer and at the end of the conversation I asked him if he had gotten any help and he said no and he just wasn't in that position . I offered to pay for , I offered to pay for therapy for him if that's something that he wanted to do . Yeah , he never did get back to me .

He never did get back to me and you know we started talking about about chesed with Periel and I said that for me the best kind of chesed is chesed , that I could feel where I'm so connected to it that the concept of giving feels so much better .

Sure , we want to give to FIDF , we want to give to these incredible charities that came out of October 7th . But if I know that there's a family three miles away from me and there are three miles away from where I live in Great Neck , or a mile away I

know because we're involved in organizations that deliver food to people and we're actually delivering food to people that live less than a mile from where we live If I know that there are people that need help whether it's stuttering , whether it's food , whether it's any kind of help that it's so important to be able to challenge that need .

That's so close to you , where you could really be impactful and see the benefit of what you're doing and what you're giving . And Perrielle told me about you know her charity and what's important to her , and I know Modi , you know your charity and that's the best way . There are a lot of people that could build buildings and we've built buildings .

There are a lot of people that could have their names up on things , but the most important and the most impactful things that we could ever do are the things that we could feel and touch and impact directly .

I paid . I paid for people . I paid for matzah . I paid for people to have meals and seders . I did it already .

You hear what he said ? Guys , it's not about the food or inviting someone in , it's you're sitting next to someone . You get a call , you have an opportunity to help somebody . Use it .

If you're lucky enough and I saw this in a situation which I'm going to talk about If you're lucky enough , right , and I saw this in a situation which I'm going to talk about If you're lucky enough that you could help somebody . Help , wow , yeah , right , because that won't always be there .

I say thank God right away and then deal with the problem , whatever the situation is in , whatever you think is the right way , but always be thankful that you're the one .

So I was at a baseball game , okay , and I was sitting in very good seats , I'm sure , and a very famous player was a few seats down in a row in front of me and a little kid comes to him for an autograph and the baseball player blows him off , oh , wow .

And then the father of the baseball player even comes over and says you know , could you sign this for this kid ? And little tiny kid , the cutest thing in the world . This is a I'm not saying it's a has-been player , but he's a has-been player . Okay , okay , it's past him .

Okay , won't sign it , won't sign it , won't sign it and in fact really is dismissive of the father and the kid . Okay , I lean over after this whole thing is over and I don't care , that guy wants to listen . I said you did something really wrong . I said let me tell you something .

If you were fortunate enough in your life that somebody wants your autograph . They want that . That's important to them . You are the luckiest man in the world , and the fact that you blew that kid off and then you blew the father off shame on you Right . One day , no one's going to want to know about you .

No one's going to want an autograph If you're lucky enough that you're able to do it now and somebody feels that that's impactful you do it Absolutely Wait , just to finish up on the Passover .

only does well , they do good , they're very philanthropic . I love that . We came up with that . Who came up with that ? The guy you work with ? No , the guy you work with . Okay , we came up with that .

You have a promo code . Okay , so hold on , I'll wrap this up . Oh , wow , whoa . Oh , wow , whoa , wow , okay . So I mean I can't thank you for being what that's it . Well , don't forget , you went into a tizzy On what , before the podcast began , you called your friend who , by the way , I'm not going to mention who he is .

It's a guy that's very well off . Can we cover that ? No , no , no , he's very well off off . But well , here's money . Yeah , he's a business , he's a family , he's good . But you gave him yiddish kite . You gave him . You gave him . The chesed you gave him was not in money . Yeah , you gave him . You told him here's you .

You can put on tefillin if you want , and he puts on tefillin . You can make the blessing friday night and you gave that to him . You gave him the , the menu . He's exceptional . He's exceptional , but he doesn't need money , but he doesn't , he's needy for something for Yiddishkeit , and you sparked his soul . Yeah , okay , wow , passover .

Those of you on your programs , you're still in the eight days . You can grasp that energy that you get on Passover , passover , you get the energy on Passover and then you work it off in the 40 days after with the Omer On Rosh Hashanah . You work up an Elul the month before and you get that energy and boom , you get that on Rosh Hashanah .

So that's where you are now . Besides that Chesed , oh my God , buy your friends tickets to see comedy shows , especially mine . I'm on tour with Pause for Laughter . We are going to be in Warsaw Poland . Can you believe that ? In Warsaw Poland ? Can you believe that ? Warsaw Poland ? And then Manchester , and then Frankfurt and Munich because why not ?

And then Geneva and Antwerp Reparations , reparations , tour Right Reparations tour . Manchester . It's going to be an insane show . Huge theater Destination . Make a weekend of it . See you guys there . Get your tickets . Modilivecom Be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show , and it can't be this long again before you come back on .